FLORIENE PATRICIA NYE
CUMBERLAND CENTER- Floriene Patricia Nye of Cumberland Center passed away peacefully at the Gosnell Hospice House in Scarborough on Saturday, October 15, 2016 at the age of 78. Born on September 8, 1938, she was the daughter of the late Arthur and Martha W. Bull of Los Angeles, CA.
Pat, as she was affectionately called by her family and friends, became deaf at the age of 5 1/2 due to meningitis. She was admitted to the Tracy Clinic in Los Angeles and later enrolled in the May E. Bennett School from 1944 to 1948. She was then transferred to the Van Ness Branch School from 1948 to 1952 and then, Foshay Junior High from 1952 to 1953. In the fall, she attended the new residential school, California School for the Deaf in Riverside. There she graduated in 1957 and went on to the Preparatory Program at Gallaudet College in Washington, D.C. for one year.
Her employment career began in the banking industry as a key puncher and a multi-chore taker in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Portland, Maine. In 1991, she was hired as a residential advisor in the girl's dormitory at the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf on Mackworth Island in Falmouth. She retired in May of 2003.
At Gallaudet College, Pat met the love of her life, William H. Nye of Great River, Long Island, New York and married him in Los Angeles on June 11, 1960. They moved to Maine and settled in the Greater Portland area. Later the family moved to North Yarmouth, then Cumberland Center. They have three grown daughters, Joy, Joan and Jenny. Last June Pat and Bill celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary.
In the Deaf community, Pat joined a number of organizations such as the Maine Mission of the Deaf, Inc., then Maine Association of the Deaf, Inc., the Greater Portland Deaf Club, the local chapter (Division 39) of the National Fraternal Society of the Deaf, the New England Deaf Senior Citizens, Inc., Maine Deaf Senior Citizens and Deaf Seniors of America, the National Association of the Deaf, Inc. and Telecommunications for the Deaf, Inc. She was vice president of Maine Association of the Deaf from 1981 to 1983. She served as the first Director of the Miss Deaf Maine Pageant from 1984 to 1985 and one of judges during a Miss Deaf America Pageant. She also chaired many N.F.S.D. Christmas events in the Greater Portland area. She often volunteered at the Mackworth Island Museum and Archives where her husband is the founder and curator.
Her past favorite hobbies were quilting, knitting, camping and gardening. She also enjoyed spending vacations at their time-share in Samoset Resort, Rockport, ME & St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. In addition, she accompanied her husband and friends to school events and local professional baseball and basketball games. Her most favorite was spending time with family. She will be sorely missed as a wife, mother, grandmother, friend, volunteer, and confidant.
The Nye family is deeply touched by calls and words of comfort from those who knew her.
Pat is survived by her husband, William H. Nye, three daughters, Elizabeth Joy Hutchinson of New Gloucester, Natalie Joan Nye of New Gloucester, and Jennifer Lee Nye of Oceanside, CA and her son, Adam Christopher Ernst, and Frederick Bull, brother and his wife, Katie of Sun City, CA.
Visitation will be held on Saturday, Oct. 22, from 11 AM to 2 PM at the Chad E. Poitras Cremation and Funeral Service Chapel, 498 Long Plains Road (Rt. 22) in Buxton. A celebration of life service will be held during the visitation at 12 noon. Online condolence messages can be submitted at the funeral home's website, www.mainefuneral.com.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in memory of Floriene P. Nye to one of two local community resources as follows:
?Mackworth Island Museum and Archives Fund/MECDHH and GBSD
?c/o William H. Nye, Curator
?One Mackworth Island
?Falmouth, ME 04105
?or
?Gosnell Memorial House
?11 Hunnewell Road
?Scarborough, ME 04074